Thursday, 19 September 2024

Thursday of the 13th week after Pentecost

137 days after Pascha · Tone 3 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyrs Trophimus, Sabbatius and Dorymedon of Synnada

The holy martyrs Trophimus, Sabbatius and Dorymedon suffered for Christ in the city of Antioch under the emperor Probus, who reigned from 276 to 282. While a great pagan festival was being celebrated, Trophimus and Sabbatius, both Christians, came into the city and were grieved at the impiety they saw on every side. They were arrested and brought before the governor Atticus. Sabbatius confessed Christ first and was tortured so cruelly that he gave up his soul under the lash. Trophimus was beaten and then sent to Phrygia to the proconsul Denys at Synnada to be further tormented. There he was scourged, his feet were pierced and he was forced to walk in iron sandals studded with nails to the place of his next torture. The senator Dorymedon, a secret Christian of Synnada, visited Trophimus in prison, washing and binding his wounds. When the pagans learned that the senator had refused to take part in the festival of Castor and Pollux, they questioned him; he openly confessed Christ and refused to honour the demons. He and Saint Trophimus were thrown to the wild beasts in the arena, but the animals would not touch them. At last both were beheaded with the sword and so received their crowns.

Holy Right-Believing Prince Theodore of Smolensk and his children David and Constantine

The holy right-believing Prince Theodore of Smolensk and Yaroslavl, called the Black, was born early in the thirteenth century at a terrible time for Rus, in the years of the Mongol invasion of 1237 to 1239. By inheritance he was prince of Mozhaisk, a portion of the Smolensk principality, and through his marriage to Princess Maria of Yaroslavl he received that throne also. After her early death he was for a time excluded from his own household by his mother-in-law. Travelling to the Golden Horde to render service, he so won the favour of Khan Mengu-Temir, who treated the Orthodox Church with respect, that the khan gave him his own daughter in marriage; she received holy Baptism and was named Anna. While at Sarai, Theodore strove to soften the lot of Christians under Mongol rule and to build churches there. From Anna were born his two sons, David and Constantine, who from childhood were instructed in the faith. After the deaths of his elder son and his mother-in-law, he was at last received back upon the throne of Yaroslavl, which he ruled in piety and justice. Falling ill in 1299, he received the great schema and reposed peacefully on 19 September. His son David ruled at Yaroslavl after him until 1321, and the youngest, Constantine, having lived in piety, was buried beside his father. Their incorrupt relics were uncovered together at Yaroslavl on 5 March 1463.

Saint Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury

Saint Theodore of Tarsus was born about the year 602 in the same city in Cilicia that had given Saint Paul to the Church. A Greek by birth and education, he studied at Antioch and Constantinople in the great learning of the East, and after the Persian conquest of Cilicia he travelled to Rome, where he became a learned monk. In 667 Pope Vitalian, having considered and rejected other candidates, chose Theodore, then sixty-five years old, to be sent to England as Archbishop of Canterbury, with the African abbot Saint Hadrian as his companion. He was consecrated archbishop in Rome on 26 March 668 and arrived at Canterbury on 27 May 669. Theodore at once set about reforming and unifying the still young Anglo-Saxon Church. He travelled the length of England, the first archbishop whose authority all the English Church accepted, ordained bishops, settled disputed sees and divided the great dioceses for more effective pastoral care. With Hadrian he founded a school at Canterbury where Latin and Greek, the Scriptures, poetry, astronomy and the calculation of the church calendar were taught, opening a golden age of Anglo-Saxon scholarship. In 672 he summoned the Council of Hertford, the first council of the whole English Church and the first national assembly of any kind in the country, and he later presided over the Council of Hatfield in 679. He fell asleep at Canterbury on 19 September 690 and was buried in the church of Saints Peter and Paul.

Holy Martyr Zosimas the Hermit of Cilicia

4th c.

Dometian, a prince and a fierce persecutor of Christians, was hunting in the mountains when he came upon an old man surrounded by wild beasts, who were as gentle and tame as lambs in his presence. When asked who he was, the old man answered that he was Zosimas, a Christian who had left the persecutors in the city to live among the beasts instead. Dometian, hearing that Zosimas was a Christian, ordered him seized and bound, and subjected him to many tortures. When the holy man was wounded and beaten all over, the prince tied a rock around his neck and hanged him from a tree, mocking him with the words ‘Command a wild beast to come, then we will all believe!’ Zosimas prayed, and at once a large lion appeared, came up to Zosimas, and took the weight of the rock on its head to ease the martyr’s sufferings. The terrified prince freed Zosimas, who died of his wounds not long afterward.

Also commemorated: Ss David and Constantine of Yaroslavl

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 10.7-18

⁷Ye look at the things that are before your face. If any man trusteth in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also are we. ⁷Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s. ⁸For though I should glory somewhat abundantly concerning our authority (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for casting you down), I shall not be put to shame: ⁸For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed: ⁹that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. ⁹That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. ¹⁰For, His letters, they say, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account. ¹⁰For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. ¹¹Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present. ¹¹Let such a one reckon this, that, what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such are we also in deed when we are present. ¹²For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with certain of them that commend themselves: but they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding. ¹²For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. ¹³But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. ¹³But we will not glory beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the province which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even unto you. ¹⁴For we stretch not ourselves overmuch, as though we reached not unto you: for we came even as far as unto you in the gospel of Christ: ¹⁴For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: ¹⁵not glorying beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors; but having hope that, as your faith groweth, we shall be magnified in you according to our province unto further abundance, ¹⁵Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, ¹⁶so as to preach the gospel even unto the parts beyond you, and not to glory in another’s province in regard of things ready to our hand. ¹⁶To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand. ¹⁷But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. ¹⁷But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. ¹⁸For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. ¹⁸For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 4.16-22

¹⁶And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

¹⁶And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. ¹⁷And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, ¹⁷And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written, ¹⁸The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, ¹⁸The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, ¹⁹To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. ¹⁹To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. ²⁰And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

²⁰And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. ²¹And he began to say unto them, To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears. ²²And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? ²²And all bare him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth: and they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?